What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Welcome to a world where questions about stopping Earth’s rotation or building a planet-size object out of Lego bricks are answered with straight-faced science. This book shows that curiosity never really died; it just needed the right outlet. By exploring the strangest scenarios, we reawaken our childlike wonder and challenge the boundaries of what we take for granted.

In these pages, you’ll see how entertaining large-scale “what if” queries can be. From everyday oddities—like bouncing a ball from outer space—to cosmic-scale antics—like surviving a close-range supernova—there’s no shortage of captivating topics. The author’s background in physics and comics makes each chapter a playful combination of facts, numbers, and humor.

Why do it at all? Because curiosity drives humanity forward. True, the answers won’t help you fix your car or ace an exam, but they will dazzle you, expand your sense of possibility, and maybe even give you a few stories to surprise friends with. That alone is worth the journey.

One of the most jaw-dropping thought experiments explores what would happen if the planet abruptly stopped rotating. At the equator, the Earth’s surface moves over a thousand miles per hour. If that halts in an instant, the air and seas remain in motion, unleashing winds so fast they’d shred the toughest structures in seconds.

Mountains might blunt some wind, but the shock to the global ecosystem would be immeasurable. Within minutes, cities everywhere would be reduced to debris, catching fire as friction heats the air. Shelter underground would help, but larger problems would follow—like unstoppable ocean sloshing and catastrophic temperature changes.

This scenario is a prime example of how analyzing a crazy question can illuminate fundamental forces we rely on, from atmospheric balance to rotational inertia. It’s a dramatic reminder that our comfortable day-to-day reality rests on countless unseen physical rules we usually don’t question—or notice—until they’re missing.